Ape Memories

It’s a wonder I’m not a loincloth fetishist. During very important formative years I was crazy about Tarzan movies. Those were the days when Johnny Weismuller portrayed the ape man and I pretty much patterned myself after him for weeks at a time after seeing one of his matinees. My halting speech cadences must have driven my parents up the wall (although there was much else about me that no doubt also accomplished that) and it has occurred to me that I might possibly have become the accomplished swimmer I am today by adopting Mr. Weismuller’s technique in these movies. Luckily for me Esther Williams came along later.

Anyway, not only did I emulate the ape man I also, naturally, became a living example of Tarzan’s sidekick, a chimpanzee named Cheeta. I loved Cheeta because he was so damn cute and cuddly and a simian wise ass with a rubbery face; an obviously rebellious soul with a mind of his own. That he was only a trained animal (probably several different animals) was beyond my ken as a child in love with a straightforward image.

This reminiscence is brought to you by a small article I read in the paper last week about a painting that was recently auctioned off at a charity event in Palm Springs, Calif. It was an AIDS research auction so overly-extravagant prices were paid for donated items.The art in question was a painting by none other than Cheeta, the chimpanzee of my youth. “Say what?!” says I. Sure enough, Cheeta is alive, presumably well, and lives in Palm Springs. He will be 75 on April 9, 2007 and is kept in a small primate sanctuary in a middle class neighborhood very close to downtown P. Springs. (How his birthday is known is beyond me since I did some googling and he was captured in the wilds of Liberia in 1932 without, presumably, a certificate of birth being issued by local authorities.) His name, just as a matter of record, is not Cheeta…it’s Jiggs. In fact, this particular ape is Jiggs 4 and made his movie debut riding the back of Jiggs 1 in “Tarzan and His Mate” in 1934. Just in case you need to know this, his last role was opposite Rex Harrison in "Doctor Dolittle” in 1967.

Since I had already booked a vacation in Palm Springs I immediately added Cheeta’s house to my itinerary as a desired destination. My friends are so accommodating. I mentioned this monkey-desire and after dinner one night and without one (perceptible) rolled-eye, we did a drive-by and, sure enough, there it was. A fairly small one-level, white bungalow house with “Casa de Cheeta” in fairly large letters on the wall and a small bronze chimp statue in the yard. Lots of well known stars had homes in Palm Springs when it was a haven from the wilds of Hollywood: Sinatra, Hope, Liberace and a whole slew of others that probably get mentioned on the bus tour (no, that was not on my agenda) but I was truly thrilled by the shear unlikelihood of this small, ordinary structure and my actually taking a look at it. I had no desire to go in or even meet the monkey; I don’t even know if that’s doable...just knowing he’s still hanging around is enough. Of course this visit has a built in tee-hee factor but there’s more to it for me. To know why you just have to reread paragraph one, above.

Cheeta’s painting brought $1,200 for that charity auction but you can buy one for $125 on his website: www.cheetathechimp.org

At the amazingly advanced age of 74 Cheeta is the oldest living (according to Guinness) chimpanzee, so if you want some simian art it might behoove you to act now.